The present invention relates to a switching regulated power supply in which an inductor for the storage of energy is composed of a conductor consisting of an elongated metallic body coated with a thin magnetic film.
The inductors such as power transformers in the conventional switching regulated power supplies are in the form of a bulk-shaped ferrite core wrapped with a winding or coil and in view of the frequency characteristic of a core, the upper limit of the switching frequency is 200.about.300 KHz. In general, as the switching frequency is increased, the capacitance of an electrolytic or tantalum capacitor which is used to rectify and smooth the energy released from the inductor to obtain a DC output may be reduced. However, at present because of the frequency characteristics of the cores, the reduction in size of the capacitors is limited.
The demand for electronic devices to be compact in size and light in weight becomes increasingly stronger and it is now essential to make compact in size the smoothing capacitors which relatively occupy a large space in the switching regulated power supply. In addition, from the standpoint of reliability in operation, it is preferable to use ceramic capacitors rather than chemical capacitors.